Barking Riverside is a railway station in the

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham () is a London borough in East London. It lies around 9 miles (14.4 km) east of Central London. It is an Outer London borough and the south is within the London Riverside section of the Thames G ...

, East London. The station serves the

Barking Riverside Barking Riverside is a mixed-use development in the area of Barking, east London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is being built on land formerly occupied by Barking Power Station, adjacent to the River Thames, and ...

regeneration area, and was built as part of an £327m extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line to the area. It opened on 18 July 2022. It is served by

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...

, and provides interchange with the

Thames Clippers Thames Clippers (since July 2020 branded as Uber Boat by Thames Clippers for sponsorship purposes with Uber) is a London River Services, river bus service on the River Thames, Thames in London, England. The company operates both commuter servi ...

boat service from

Barking Riverside Pier Barking Riverside Pier is a Thames Clippers commuter service pier located on the River Thames at Barking Riverside. Passenger services began on 26 April 2022. The pier provides interchange with Barking Riverside railway station and local bus ro ...

. The extension runs partly over the existing

London, Tilbury and Southend line The London, Tilbury and Southend line, also known as Essex Thameside, is a commuter railway line on the British railway system. It connects Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , ...

from , operated over by

c2c Trenitalia c2c Limited,Companies House extract company no 789726 ...

, and over of new track laid to the new station. The extension reduces typical journey times to the centre of Barking from the area by 18 minutes.

History

The

development is a

brownfield site In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

of some , on the site of the former

Barking Power Station Barking Power Station refers to a series of power stations at various sites within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in east London. The original power station site, of the coal-fired A, B and C stations, was at River Road, Creekmouth, o ...

. The site has planning permission for around 10,800 homes, however planning restrictions prevent more than 1,200 homes without adequate transport links. An extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Dagenham Dock was proposed in the mid 2000s at a cost of around £750m, however this extension was cancelled in 2008 by then

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

. Following this, Transport for London assessed various options to bring transport links to

, including the previously proposed DLR extension, extension of the

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fin ...

to Grays, new segregated, high frequency bus services and a new station at Renwick Road. Following a decision to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking line to the area in 2014, the proposed route was consulted on in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Following this, a

Transport and Works Act Order The Transport and Works Act 1992 (TWA) was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to provide a system by which the construction of rail transport, tramway, inland waterway and harbour infrastructure could proceed in the UK by ord ...

for the extension and new station was submitted in March 2016. As part of this process, a

public inquiry A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal ...

was held in October 2016. The Transport and Works Order was approved in August 2017.

Construction

Following approval of the Transport and Works Order in August 2017, construction on the extension by a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

Morgan Sindall Morgan Sindall Group plc is a leading British Construction & Regeneration group, headquartered in London employing around 6,700 employees and operating in the public, regulated and private sectors. It reports through six divisions of Constructio ...

and

VolkerFitzpatrick VolkerRail is a specialist railway infrastructure services company based in Doncaster, England, providing services across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is wholly owned by Netherlands-based VolkerWessels, a multi-disciplinary construction an ...

began in late 2018. Construction was originally expected to take 3 years at a cost of £260m, with the new station opening in December 2021. The station building has been designed by

Weston Williamson Weston Williamson is a British architectural firm formed in 1985 and based in London, Melbourne, Sydney and Toronto. History Weston Williamson was established in 1985 by Andrew Weston and Chris Williamson, who met whilst studying architectu ...

. Following delays caused by

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

restrictions and utility diversion issues, it was announced in December 2020 that the extension would be delayed until Autumn 2022, with a cost increase to £327m.

Opening

In June 2022, TfL announced that the extension's opening would be brought forward to open in summer 2022. This was followed by an announcement on 11 July 2022 that services would begin on 18 July 2022. The opening coincided with the

2022 United Kingdom heat wave The 2022 United Kingdom heatwaves were part of several heatwaves across Europe and North Africa. The United Kingdom experienced three heatwaves; the first was for three days in June, the second for three days in July, and the third for six days ...

with temperatures of nearly 40°C. TfL issued a warning to passengers advising them to only travel if essential. As a result, the first day of operation saw few passengers.

Future

As part of the future development of the area, the Barking Riverside town centre will be built adjacent to the station, with public space, shops, community facilities and a bus interchange. Gospel Oak-Barking with Barking Riverside extension

Gospel Oak-Barking with Barking Riverside extension

Route

Leaving

Barking station Barking is an interchange station serving the town of Barking, east London. It is served by London Underground, London Overground and National Rail main line services. It is located on Station Parade, in the town centre. On the Underground it i ...

towards the southeast, the extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking line runs on the

for around . It then branches from the existing line, passing underneath Renwick Road where a future station at Renwick Road has been passively safeguarded. The extension then turns south, crossing the main line and the Ripple Lane freight yard on a viaduct, as well as crossing over the

High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...

tunnels. The viaduct then continues south for to the elevated station at Barking Riverside. There have also been calls to extend the line further south across the river to

Thamesmead Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...

and

Abbey Wood Abbey Wood is an area in south east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross. Toponymy The area takes its name from Lesnes Abbey Woo ...

. In August 2017, the Government granted permission for the extension, with a future provision for a stop at . A future extension across the Thames is not prevented by this project, however an extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead has been proposed instead. The station is owned by Transport for London, however the railway infrastructure was handed over to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

upon project completion.

Services

The typical off-peak service is four trains per hour to via the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. Later in the evening, the service is reduced to three trains per hour. All services are operated by

using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

Connections

services from

is a short walk away from the station.

East London Transit East London Transit (ELT) is a part-segregated bus rapid transit, operated as part of the London Buses network. The East London Transit opened in phases between 2010 and 2013. The scheme for this system was developed by Transport for London to ...

branded

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

also serve the station.

References

External links

* Official project page: * {{Current rail infrastructure projects in the United Kingdom station Railway stations served by London Overground Transport in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Railway stations in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2022 Railway stations opened by Network Rail